More violence

Charles Jones, SPECIAL TO THE EXAMINER

Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, November 14, 1995

EDITOR'S NOTE: A year ago California voters passed Proposition 184 mandating 25 years to life for three-time felony offenders. Young African American males see themselves as the key target and statistics bear out their fears: In Los Angeles, where blacks make up fewer than one out of 10 residents, the ratio of black to non-black sentenced under three strikes is 17-1. In San Francisco, blacks also make up the majority of three strikers.

YO! asked several dozen inner-city residents - primarily African American but also Asian, white and Latino - how the three strikes law has changed their lives. This is the first of two parts.

"STRIKE ONE!" yells the umpire in the bottom of the ninth, with two out. "Strike two!" he repeats, as the batter curses with all the cool of a lava pit. "Strike three!" The batter leaves the field defeated, embarrassed, booed, while teammates smile empty smiles and extend lifeless handshakes.

Outside the stadium, three strikes means more than the loss of victory. Thanks to the three strikes law, judges now can determine human life with the same rules as a baseball umpire. A third strike means the end of freedom and the beginning of death.

Jim Carrey Under Fire for a Painting That Looks Like Sarah Huckabee SandersEntertainment Weekly

As an 18-year-old with a track record of felonies, I feel as if my options have run out. My biggest fear is not that I'll stray across some invisible line but that I'll be pulled over the line. Senseless arrests and undeserved jail time have kept my hands dirty. Many a night I have run from the police for fear of getting a strike.

While in jail, I've observed that the majority of inmates down on strikes are black (about 50 percent) or Latino (30 percent). Asians and whites are about 10 percent each. I know brothers now who no longer fear the law and have adapted a "F- - it, if you want me, come get me!" attitude. Three strikes is a cheap, sadistic scare tactic and for those who don't fear it there are brutal officers and crooked judges with the common goal of eradicating the colored man.

But the plan may backfire. Three strikes has driven some to the point of saying - and meaning - "If a cop tries to arrest me and I have two strikes, the cop's dead!"

The writers are on the staff of YO! (Youth Outlook), a newspaper by and about Bay Area youth produced by Pacific News Service.&lt;